1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein are generally related to a fee management system, a transmission system, and a fee management method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people who remotely hold conversations with each other using transmission terminals such as PCs (personal computers) or mobile phones. Further, such a conversation (e.g., conference) may be held not only between the two locations (two people) but also be held between multiple locations (three or more people).
Further, an administrator who administers communications service for holding the conversation between the transmission terminals (users) obtains profits by charging each of users of the transmission terminals a communication fee. Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 9-172509 (hereinafter referred to as “Patent Document 1”) discloses a method of equally charging each of attendees of the conversation a communication fee from a start to an end of the conversation. This method manages communication fees of multiple locations so as to efficiently manage the communications fees for an entire conference. More specifically, this method pertains to a method for controlling a multiple location conference that is simultaneously held at three or more locations. The method includes managing communication fees of conference attending terminals (i.e., terminals used by conference attendees) and a communication fee of a multiple location conference control apparatus.